October Light Themes

Themes and Meanings

Gardner’s novels, especially October Light, evince a strong connection between themes and meanings on the one hand and characterizations on the other. The motif of locks and locking provides an example. The novel takes place in October, when “the sudden contradiction of daylight” provides “the first deep-down convincing proof that locking time, and after that winter and deep snow and cold, were coming.” Though still vigorous, the aged Sally and James realize that, like the year’s end, their own end approaches; meanwhile, they are locked in a fierce, potentially lethal conflict. Sally locks her door against James and the rest of the world. Later, through that door, she has an awkward discussion with a visiting Hispanic priest and realizes ironically, “How difficult it was to have a serious conversation through a locked door. There was a lesson in that!”

On other levels, Gardner shows how characters lock their hearts against one another, often without realizing it. Perhaps unfairly, the priest, Father Hernandez, forces Sally the Yankee Protestant to think of herself for a moment as “one of the colorful minorities.” The unfairness, however, is mutual; Sally is puzzled by what she sees as Hernandez’s attack on her, since “He was a priest. . . . They were supposed to be gentle and understanding.”

Gardner seems to be saying, too, that the locking of hearts and the sudden contraction of mental light (one is reminded...